216 Scientific Sophisms. 



is, that they are required by the hypothesis. 

 In Haeckel's Stammbaum here they are accord- 

 ingly as veritable as Falstaff's men in buckram 

 with no extinct or living representatives, but 

 being, for all that, " undoubtedly " the progen- 

 itors of all the Vertebrata, through the Ascid- 

 ians. Not that they were always so, however. 

 Far from it. But anticipating the advice of 

 Mrs. Louisa Chick they knew how much de- 

 pended on them, and they " made an effort." l 

 It succeeded beyond all expectation. They 

 " developed THEMSELVES " ! How ? By the 

 simplest possible process, in the easiest possible 

 manner. Nothing more than " the formation 

 of a spinal marrow and a chorda dorsalis " ! 



(14), The Sozura, is an order of Amphibia 

 interpolated " because required as a necessary 

 transition stage between the true Amphibia," 

 (13,) and (15) The Protamniota, or general 

 stem of the mammalia, reptiles, and birds. 

 " What the Protamniota were like," says Prof. 

 Huxley, "I do not suppose any one is in a 

 position to say." 2 And yet we are told that 



1 " It's necessary for you to make an effort, and per 

 haps a very great and painful effort which you are not 

 disposed to make ; but this is a world of effort you know, 

 Fanny, and we must never yield, when so much depends 

 upon us. Come ! Try ! "Dombey &> Son, ch. i. 



2 " Critiques and Addresses," p. 318. 



